‘NFA Developing Players With U-13 Football Competition’

The coach, FCT U-13 football team, Usman Ilerika, says the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) is using the ongoing national football competition to develop youths.

Ilerika made the assertion while reacting to his team’s 3-2 victory over their Ogun State counterparts in an interview with newsmen in Abuja last Saturday.

He said that retaining the trophy of the competition which kicked off on Friday was the secondary aim of their participation.

The coach said that though the FCT won the last edition, the main purpose of participating in it was to develop young players.

On the performance by FCT, he said it was not impressive because the central defenders were not admitted to the tournament by the organisers.

“The lapse in the team is a problem that I cannot rectify now; I am trying to adjust; we do not have a central defender since two of them were screened out.

“So, we are only trying to improvise with attackers, we will continue to manage, this competition is all about developing the players; retaining the trophy is not compulsory,’’ he said.

In the matches played on Saturday, Kaduna lost to Lagos 2-3, Katsina defeated Plateau 2-1, while Niger beat Bauchi 5-0.

The competition is expected to end tomorrow.